Another New Guy From Michigan!

[Mark Alan]

Hello everyone, I am brand new to real estate investing. I work as an airline captain as a career, and fly other planes for fun.  After losing too much money in the stock market, I need a better place to invest. People have been telling me for years to get into real estate, but I've always had reservations about becoming a "slum lord". I've always had the idea that rental houses would be a nightmare of dealing with late rents and damaged properties.  I guess I thought that because I know nothing about the business. 

I just flew with a pilot that turned me on to the wonderful resource which is this website. I've only been a member for a day, but I'm trying to read as much as I can. I'm slowly learning that real estate investing is more than just buying a random house and trying to rent it out. I'm learning the correct way to do it!

So now I'm formulating ideas in my head about a business plan, I'm looking on Zillow.com just to get an idea of house prices around me and local rents. I'm in the 'research' phase now but hope to learn enough to buy my first rental property soon. My area of interest is "buy and hold". Wow...look at me-already using the lingo LOL.

Anyway, that you all who post here and help us beginners learn! Maybe someday I'll have something useful to post for others.